[1rae]

I really don't see why investors would be too interested, but good luck to you anyway. My company was going to build a $50mil solar farm in Nigeria and we couldn't find enough interest in funding anything like this. It seems like it would be a lot less hassle to focus on large solar projects... The general rule of thumb is that Americans are scared of investing in Africa, even though there is a lot of opportunity.

Maybe smaller solar installations like this would work out better than larges ones.

What are you going to do if someone doesn't pay up, are you going to take their solar lamps away from them?

[pavlov]

I think the key part in the article may be this:

"Instead, the company’s true feat is setting up a distribution model and payment infrastructure that West African families and community leaders are comfortable with."

A distribution model that goes through community leaders has built-in trust. If someone steals the hardware, it will be known inside the community.

In contrast, a $50 million plant being built by foreigners may seem to the locals as yet another isolated project by the colonialists, and therefore a free target for stealing.

I'm not saying your company would act against the local community -- but the locals may not see it that way. To them, a huge foreigner-built project is an extension of what they've seen happen in West Africa ever since the French showed up in the 19th century and started building railroads for their own use.

[etrautmann]

It's the long tail. There are staggering numbers of people that can benefit significantly and this directly saves them on energy costs. I'm guessing Senegal is just a starting point for a much larger anticipated long-term rollout.

Not sure if this falls under social entrepreneurship or is anticipated to be a good business model, but does seem like it's both viable and has potentially vast and traditionally underserved market.